JOSHUA TREE >> DNA has allegedly linked a Joshua Tree man in jail accused of another crime to an unsolved rape originally reported in 2009.

Thomas John Cole, 40, of Joshua Tree was arrested July 23 by San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies as a suspect in a rape that had been reported that night, a sheriff’s news release said.

“DNA is always taken when someone is suspected in a sex crime,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said. “Crime lab personnel ran Cole’s DNA through a database and it came back matching that of the suspect DNA in a 2009 unsolved rape case.”

Detectives discovered Cole had been named as a suspect in two other rape cases with two additional victims, involving similar circumstances, sheriff’s officials said.

Officials said they believe Cole befriended the victims for a short period of time prior to the alleged sexual assaults.

The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office filed four felony counts, three counts of forcible rape and one count of attempted forcible rape, against Cole.

He remains in custody in the Morongo Basin Jail and is being held in lieu of $250,000 bail.

Anyone with additional information regarding this investigation is asked to contact the Morongo Basin Sheriff’s Station Detective Division at 760-366-4175.